- Japanese: 官生 (kanshou), 勤学 (kingaku)
Over the course of the history of the Ryûkyû Kingdom, a small number of Ryukyuan students from aristocratic and royal families were sent to study at the National Academy (Guozijuan). At the beginning of this period, the Academy was located in the capital of Nanjing, but after the Yongle Emperor moved the capital to Beijing c. 1402, the Academy was moved as well.
When the system began, it was only the children of kings and anji (high-ranking local/regional nobles), i.e. the community of Shuri, the royal capital, who were able to study in Beijing; however, from the reign of Shô Shin (r. 1477-1526) onwards, children of scholar-aristocrat families from Kumemura began to be sent as well. For a time, it became standard for three students from Shuri, and three from Kumemura, to be sent at a time. Those whose travel and studies were paid for by the government were called kanshô ("government students"), while those who had to pay their own way were called kingaku ("work-study").[1]
Over the course of a 476 year period, from 1392 until 1868, roughly 100 Ryukyuan students studied at the Guozijuan. A much larger number of Ryukyuan students engaged in study at the two Ryûkyû-kan, in Fuzhou and in Kagoshima.
References
- "Kanshô," Okinawa Compact Encyclopedia 沖縄コンパクト事典, Ryukyu Shimpo, 1 March 2003.
- ↑ Gallery labels, "Kuninda - Ryûkyû to Chûgoku no kakehashi," special exhibit, Okinawa Prefectural Museum, Sept 2014.